100 Memories and 100 More
by UltimateParadox
Summary: 200 one-shot challenge. #5: Worlds apart, he can lead him from the dark. AU, PG-15.
1. Warm

**A/N: Challenge between DivaGurl277 and myself. We're to choose 1 fandom and write a 200 one-shot collection! 200 chapters! 200 installments! And I have chosen the Tsubasa fandom. :3 Aren't you lucky?**

Disclaimer: I do not own. CLAMP owns. Because CLAMP is better than I am in every way, shape, and form.

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**_Warm_**

There were some days that Kurogane felt like he was never going back to Nihon, but he would never voice the thoughts nor let them fester. He would find something to keep those dark thoughts away; the distractions usually came in the form of the obnoxiously flamboyant wizard with no respect for the personal space of fellow human beings.

_Was the wizard really a human being?_

The thought amused him somewhat. Perhaps he'd spent too long away from his post at Shirasaki Castle, but his imagination had presented Kurogane with the image of Fai with four arms, six tails, and antennae that blinked blue—the same shade as the wizard's oceanic eyes.

"…I need a drink. _Now_."

The ninja stood abruptly from his chair in front of the crackling fireplace that kept the house warm in the sitting room (whatever world they'd landed in was always winter, and it was colder than a snowball that was surviving in hell) and made his way to the small kitchen. Pulling open a cupboard and taking a glass that was almost egg-shaped, and would have been if not for the open top and the flat bottom, Kurogane began to wonder again.

_Who comes up with these kinds of things? This glass is bizarre._

An image of a factory run by talking, rabbit-like meat buns came to mind and he suddenly felt nauseous. As if _one_ Mokona wasn't enough…oh _Kami-sama_, please let the Witch keep the black one with her at all times. No one deserved the kind of torture of _two_.

Kurogane stood stock still. The thought of the blond wizard…combined with the thought of the wretched buns and that witch…finally turned his thoughts elsewhere.

_Why is it so quiet? Where did they go?_

Immediately on guard, drink forgotten, the dark-haired man stalked out of the kitchen and down the hall to the bedrooms.

He passed Syaoran's bedroom without any real worries—that room was always quiet. The boy was always reading silently or keeping the other members (_Sakura_, his mind supplied) company in other areas of the household. Just in case, he had turned the knob and peeked in to see it empty.

_Brat's not in. He'd have told me if he went anywhere…so he's still here somewhere. …Somewhere. Reassuring. Great._

Next was the princess's room. Maybe Kurogane had been expecting some kind of sound from there, because the silence made him pause in his patrol through the long hall. Maybe he'd been expecting some kind of interaction between Sakura and the boy, or Sakura and the meat bun, or perhaps with the idiot mage. Maybe he'd been expecting some laughter or the muffled indication of conversation. No matter what he'd been expecting, Kurogane heard nothing from the bedroom and he turned the knob. Because he had heard nothing, he was not surprised to find it empty as well.

_Princess isn't in, either. She's probably off with the brat. He'll keep her safe. No real problems there._

The ninja continued his trek. He passed by the open and dark bathroom, already knowing he wouldn't find anyone in that room. The hall was coming to an end as he reached the last room, other than a closet so stuffed with brooms, mops, buckets, and other such objects that he doubted even the bun could fit in it and his own bedroom. He knew that if he _ever_ found them in his room, he'd skin them alive. That left the last room...

…And that last room was the mage's room.

Kurogane sighed. He couldn't hear anything from that room either. But, knowing the wizard, he was certain that Fai _wasn't in there_.

"…Then where the hell did they go!?"

Just as he had the other rooms, Kurogane wrenched open the door and expected to be met with an empty room.

Which is what he did _not_ find. He would never admit it, but the presence of all his traveling companions in one room had thrown him completely off guard.

Piled on top of Fai's bed, right there, was everyone. The blond idiot was smashed in the middle of Syaoran and Sakura holding some kind of book (he didn't know the mage could read this country's language) while the damnable white Mokona was perched on top of those pale-yellow locks.

And they were all sleeping soundly.

…_It's almost cute_.

Kurogane made a mental note to kill himself later for that thought. His mind was pulling some demented joke on him, he decided, if that was where his thoughts strayed to.

Movement caught his eye. The princess was shivering. Kurogane scanned the room. Just as every other room in this house that they'd been allowed to stay at by somehow saving a woman's husband from certain doom by landing on their neighbor's car (and effectively destroying it) when they arrived, a fireplace was set in the far wall. The remains of a fire, small and slowly dying in small sparks of orange, rested among blackened wood and ash.

"…Idiots, falling asleep without having someone watch the fire…," Kurogane grumbled. He dragged a chair from a small writing desk to the fireplace and sat, taking a poker and tapping at the dying flames. They rose slightly, but died down just as quickly. "Che."

The ninja left the room and stalked back to the sitting room where he'd seen the stack of firewood. Kurogane grabbed a few logs and trudged back down the hall. He reclaimed his seat by the fireplace and arranged the logs above the tiny, flickering flame. They did not catch.

With a scowl, Kurogane looked around him and on the fireplace's mantel was a box of matches. He struck one, and then another, and then _one more_ and watched the fire rise in a new blaze of glorious reds, oranges, yellows, and the occasional sparks of burning blue.

The heat was more intense than Kurogane had expected, so he scoot the chair farther back, but then kept his eyes, red like the flames, on the tongues licking at the smoky fireplace. Nodding to himself for creating a satisfactory fire, he turned back to the group.

_Idiot mage with his idiot book, annoying bun, earnest boy, and bashful princess. Check, check, check, check._

Kurogane watched them for a moment longer, mulling another thought, another _memory_, around in his mind.

"_Tomoyo-hime?" Kurogane had asked, trying very hard to keep his concern from showing through his tone. He'd already schooled his expression into staying fierce._

_The small princess looked up at her protector from Suwa, amethyst eyes half lidded. "Yes, Kurogane?"_

_Her innocent acknowledgement kept him silent. Kurogane knew what he'd been asking his princess and his princess knew how she was supposed to answer Kurogane._

_With a small sigh of resignation, Tomoyo said, "I'm fine, just a little cold…It's unusually cold this winter, don't you think?"_

_Kurogane grunted, as was his nature. It made Tomoyo smile, and that was good enough for the ninja at the moment. Her smile was like the moon, bright and beautiful, only that it was within his reach. Even if he'd never take it._

_The moment that her smile kept him content, however, did not last long. Kurogane watched Tomoyo's shoulders quivering. He watched her hug herself tight. He watched her curl her body into a ball as she pulled up her sheets._

_And Kurogane sighed inside. He'd been standing at her window, just checking up on her, so it was nothing of a challenge to make his way over to her bed. Tomoyo blinked up at him in confusion, eyes round and pure. "Kurogane? What are you doing?"_

"…_Here," he muttered. Kurogane undid his cloak and rested it gently across his princess's form. "It's warm; I've been wearing it all night. Let it be of some use to you." He turned to hide an embarrassed blush._

_A giggle sounded behind him. "Thank you, Kurogane. I'll return it to you tomorrow."_

"…_Che. Whatever."_

_Feeling slightly put out by losing his cloak, but not regretting it for a second, Kurogane left as he had come—via the window. He heard the next day that Tomoyo had slept very well that night and didn't feel cold at all._

Kurogane glanced once more at the four on the bed. They were all resting _on_ the sheets and blankets. "Go figure…,"

The ninja stood and walked down to his bedroom. Folded neatly on his bed was his thick, black cloak. His calloused fingers brushed over the fabric; it was ice cold. With a mental groan, Kurogane grabbed it and stalked back to Fai's and let the cloth warm by the fire.

When he was satisfied, Kurogane felt his own cheeks warm with embarrassment. Using his superior ninja skills, he gently lifted Mokona from atop the magician's hair and effortlessly removed the book from the man's grip, resting the white creature in the pale hands. He then shook out the cloak and let it flutter softly across the four.

"You guys had better appreciate this, or I swear…,"

* * *

Kurogane woke up the next day in his own bed, glad to be out of that suffocatingly _cute_ room, with or without his cloak. A voice in the back of his mind told him he'd be given hell about leaving it in there, but he squashed it down for the time being.

He stood and stretched, feeling his back pop in several places. Kurogane grunted and left the bedroom. Upon opening the door, the scent of bacon smacked his nostrils. The scent led him to the kitchen, where he found the mage in front of something called a _st-ou-vuh_ with a frying pan.

The magician turned slightly and he saw Kurogane out of the corner of his eye. "Kuro-chu! You're awake! What'd you like for breakfast? I was making bacon and eggs, but was there anything you'd want in particular?"

Kurogane was almost blinded by the mage's sunny smile, and would've made some kind of snarky comment, but then he noticed how genuine the blond's behavior really was. "…No, nothing in particular. I'll have whatever you're making."

"Suit yourself, Kuro-rah,"

Kurogane left the kitchen and entered the sitting room where saw Syaoran and Sakura sitting on the floor—beside the same crackling fireplace he'd sat at before going to find them—with the insolent bun between them, twirling and spewing some babbling song.

Syaoran looked up and smiled at him. "Good morning, Kurogane-san," he greeted.

"Oh!" Sakura clapped, another grin bright enough to challenge Fai's gracing her features, "Kurogane-san! Good morning!" She tuned down the smiling brightness, if only slightly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah!" Mokona bleated. "How'd Kuro-fuu sleep? Mokona hopes he had good dreams!"

The ninja blinked once. Twice. Three times. "…I slept fine. Why?"

Sakura answered, "I thought I'd ask because I had hoped you would. You deserve to sleep well after being so nice. Thank you!"

Kurogane decided that, even if he wasn't getting hell for offering up his cloak, he wasn't totally against this form of appreciation.

But he'd never let them know that.

"Whatever. It was cold, and I wasn't. You guys shouldn't have fallen asleep like that. Buncha idiots, all of you!" He turned his nose up at them.

"Ah, such a grumpy guts," came the wizard's voice from the kitchen. "Sakura-chan! Syaoran-kun! Could you come and help me for a second?"

"Sure!" Syaoran called back, and both residents of Clow stood and made their way to the kitchen. Kurogane huffed and reclaimed his seat by the fireplace. Mokona leapt onto his lap, grinning like the Cheshire cat. It set Kurogane on edge as he engaged the tiny creature in a staring contest.

Sakura returned balancing two plates deftly, having learned how from experience in Outo. Syaoran came back with only one, which he offered to Kurogane with a soft, "Here,"

The larger man flicked the white creature-bun off his lap and accepted the plate. He watched as Sakura gave her other plate to the brunette. They had begun eating, but the ninja had not touched his plate yet. Kurogane was staring at the entrance of the sitting room.

_Where the hell's the idiot wizard?_

At long last, the familiar blond man swung into the room, a black cloth folded in his arms. Kurogane recognized his cloak. He scowled as Fai got closer, and continued to do so when the lanky man stopped in front of him. "Really, thanks, Kuro-lum."

And with a flourish, Fai unfolded the cloak and let it rest on Kurogane's shoulders.

"Just for Kuro-sweet, his cloak pre-warmed by the fire,"

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**A/N: And some Sweet!Kurogane for you! I hope ya enjoyed one-shot 1/200. x333 It was fun to write.**


	2. Answer

**A/N:** **This wasn't supposed to be this one. xD I had Memory 2 completely planned out, but then I realized I didn't want to write it out. Maybe another memory? It was gonna be called "Rave", by the way. Hahaha.**

**Inspired by **_**Sad Story **_**by Loveholic.**

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_**Answer**_

Sometimes, Chi thinks about how she misses Fai (_the not-Fai who made her_).

The blond man always had a smile or a silly story to tell her about his day. When he finished with whatever duties he'd had to perform, he would always come up to the lake and visit Chi (_the other Fai_). He was always there for her (_him_).

A darkness in her mind always said that maybe, just maybe, her Fai only saw her as an object. She was there to keep the small Fai company in his place of resting. She was a replacement for the not-Fai while he was away; working.

But then a warm light would beat back that darkness.

Chi knows that her Fai, the not Fai, made her to keep his Fai company. He didn't want his brother to be lonely. Chi knows that. But Chi knows that when Fai comes up, he is doing more than to keep his brother company.

And Chi believes that Fai likes her, too. Not as an object as her darkness suggests, but as a person who will see her as another human. She may not be anything but magic, a forgotten memory, perhaps, but Fai smiles and cares for her all the same.

Chi also knows that Fai is grateful she does as she's instructed. She likes it when Fai is happy despite how sad his eyes grow when he peers at the other, smaller Fai. She knows she cannot fix that sadness, but she tries anyway.

Chi also thinks that the other Fai is grateful, too. She likes to think that he appreciates the company his brother gave him. Chi feels she is helping in a small, step-by-step process. Even if he is always cold and sleeping soundly, Chi feels he knows everything that Chi and the Fai-that-is-not-Fai do for him.

Sometimes, Chi thinks that the small Fai misses her Fai.

But she can't ask him, because he won't answer. He never answers. He's always sleeping. Chi remembers that Fai almost looked like he was hurt the first time Chi said the other Fai was sleeping, but he would not tell her what the problem was.

Her Fai's main goal is to find a way to wake him up. Chi hopes one day he does. She wants to see Fai's smile in a different way—she wants to see his eyes light up, and feel the happiness she never feels radiate off him like the sun (another thing she'd like to see more of; the clouds are almost always overhead).

She also wants to meet Fai's Fai. She wants to know his thoughts, his dreams. She knows her Fai enough, so she wants to know what the small one is like.

She wonders if he'll be as pleasant as Fai and Ashura-ou are to her. They both smile and talk gently.

What if the small Fai waas scared, or maybe he'd be confused? Chi does not know what fear feels like, but Fai has described it to her. He was very sad when he told her about it. She wonders if it has to do with the time before Celes. But Chi does know confusion.

She'd woken for the first time, Fai's magic molding her into shape and giving her a breath of air so cold, it might have stung her lungs if she could remember—had her lungs even formed completely at the time she took that breath?—and she was so very confused.

The world was bright and cold and there were sounds she did not recognize. She did not recognize anything. She knew nothing. She was nothing.

Then, as everything came to focus, she saw the form of a child, small with light hair and eyes wide and blue.

Of course, she knew none of the words for what she saw at the time. It is what comes with being nothing.

He'd spoken to her. The sounds were foreign and lilting, but his voice was so tender, if not a little tired. She hadn't understood.

The boy turned out to be her Fai, and he'd brought her up as though she were his newborn baby. She might as well have been. She learned quickly, and was given a main priority in life.

"I don't want him to be lonely. Stay with him, okay?"

The request was pushed through Fai's gently smiling lips.

He'd been smiling, Chi remembers, but he'd never looked so sad. Or so hopeful.

Chi wouldn't deny that request for the world.

Fai had continued to teach her—words, phrases, manners, functions—and he smiled more each day. The smiles eventually grew less sad as the time flew by, but that tinge of sadness never left.

It became something Chi just grew used to seeing. She decided not to ask Fai about it, because he always said the same thing: _"Just thinking about something, it'll pass."_

Chi wonders if it ever passed.

Chi also learned that the time before was never something her Fai wanted to discuss. She would wait happily in the lake and listen to him talk, answer her questions about anything and everything, the other Fai resting silently (_as always_) at the bottom, but the only questions he left unanswered were about the time before.

The only information she knew about it was that Ashura-ou had saved him from a place Fai never wanted to remember.

Chi never had any qualms with the dark-haired king. Whenever Fai smiled at him, the sadness was always at the minimum. He had taught her that Ashura-ou was a good person, and would not bring harm to her or anyone; a good king. He talked to her like Fai did whenever she occasionally spoke with him—he always talked to Fai and other members of the court—and he never yelled.

Saving Fai was just a plus, Chi figures.

Years had gone since their first meeting. Fai had spent every minute of free time he had up at the lake with her (_and him_). Even as he grew taller, even as his voice changed, even as he grew more confident and powerful and intelligent. He couldn't seem to comprehend that if he wanted to go somewhere else, _do_ something else, he could.

Not that Chi minded.

One day, as Fai once again sat by the lake, fingers dipping into the clear waters and making ripples that broke against her body, Ashura-ou came to see Fai.

It was not a strange interruption. Ashura-ou was the only person to come to the lake other than Fai, and he did so quite frequently. Chi could recall times when the king had come up to wish Fai a "Happy Birthday!" or when he'd just come to relax with the two (_three_) of them when he had the time.

Chi figured they were all friends, as Fai had described them.

"_Friend?"_

_Fai tilted his head down to catch her eyes. The ever present smile was set in place. Chi smiled back, just because she felt she should. When she smiled, she knew, Fai smiled with more happiness than sadness. It was almost like a healing magic, Fai had told her._

_And she was right. That bit of "magic" lightened the depressing darkness in his eyes._

"_That's right Chi. Don't you know what a friend is? We're friends. Chi and Fai…friends."_

"_Chi and Fai…friends. Chi understands. But…what is a friend?"_

_Fai chuckled a little and leaned back until he had gone from sitting at the lake's edge to laying by it. "What's a friend, you ask? I suppose I could tell you…," he teased, a mischievous tone inflecting his gentle voice and demeanor._

"_Please, Fai? Chi likes it when Fai teaches her things."_

"_Alright," he said, turning to lay on his side so that he could see Chi better. "…Hm…how to put it into words…?"_

"_Fai?"_

"_Patience, Chi. A friend…A friend is someone you feel safe telling your secrets to. The deep, dark ones. Your fears, your hopes, too. A friend is someone you want to share your good fortunes with, and in return, you want to know their good fortunes, too. It makes you happy._

"_A friend is someone you cherish. They feel like family to you, only you aren't related by blood. But don't get me wrong, Chi. Family members can also be your friends."_

_Fai looked down into the water, eyes focused solely on the tiny tomb. "Fai and I were friends. And we're going to be again, I'm sure." He cleared his throat and brought his attention back to Chi. He tugged on one of her cat-like ears._

"_Most importantly, a very good friend is someone who likes you for you. This friend will share the aspects of your life with you, whether it's at a humorous time of life or if it's when they're truly needed."_

Fai and Chi are friends, Chi knows. Fai never, ever lies to Chi, she knows this, too.

It was the strong light force that pushed her doubting darkness away. The light was warm and it kept her smiling.

She wonders, sometimes, if her smiles are sad like Fai's. But she isn't sure that she has anything to be sad about, or if she can even feel sad. She decides it's safest not to press the issue.

Especially since there is no one left to answer her questions, even if she asks them. Ashura-ou had been bleeding that day he came up, and then the hellish nightmare had begun. Chi did not know the impact of the changing world. People were dying, Fai was screaming, he was _crying_, and then it was quiet.

So bizarrely quiet. Quiet like the sleeping Ashura and the other Fai below the surface of her lake. And Fai had gone, leaving her with a new priority.

Chi would never, ever refuse one of Fai's gently spoken requests.

Sometimes, Chi thinks about how she misses Fai (_her friend_).

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**A/N: Finally done! This one was experimental, in a way. I've never written anyone like Chi before, and I was experimenting with tenses. Good, or bad? Which is it, reviewer-san?**

**I'd also like to thank my good friend DivaGurl277 for helping me come up with a definition for a friend. She's very good and she writes in the Danny Phantom fandom. I encourage you to check her out! And this is what we call shameless advertising.**


	3. Castrato

**//A/N: Who missed me? This story's not very well known, but a challenge is a challenge is a challenge. And I'm winning. So here is my baby, Memory 3!****Also, this is canon!Kurogane and Fai. No couple, sorry, but I'm trying to keep these strictly canon, even if this is an AU chapter. I love KuroFai, though, check my other stuff.//**

_**Castrato**_

_**Scene 1 - Promise**_

It was raining the day that he first saw him.

Kurogane watched from his bedroom window as the tiny, red car pulled into his neighbor's driveway. Their front door burst open and a flustered, blond woman barreled out of the house in a pink bathrobe with matching slippers. He recognized her as Mrs. Motosuwa, but this portrayal of her did not compute with his memories; the lady was always kind, smiling, composed. This Mrs. Motosuwa looked almost terrified.

The driver's door opened and a man Kurogane didn't know stepped out, hurrying to meet Mrs. Motosuwa halfway. He saw them talking and couldn't help not caring. After all, movement in the car had captured his attention.

He hadn't heard his bedroom door open, but suddenly a gentle hand descended on his shoulder. He jumped.

"Ah," came his mother's soft voice. Kurogane worried (just a little, because he was a boy and boys were strong) when she sounded a little sad (because Mommy is always smiling, like Mrs. Motosuwa). "Chi told me about him."

"Him?"

His mother didn't answer. Instead, they both watched the man move to the back door on the driver's side and pull it open. Slowly, cautiously, a blond boy Kurogane thought was his age slid out of the vehicle. Bandages were wrapped tightly around his head, under his fair hair, and around his hands. The man was talking to him, but the boy refused to look up.

"Is that him?" Kurogane asked, glancing up at his mother.

"Yes," she answered. Her eyes darkened with something unfamiliar and her hand tightened its hold on his shoulder in a desperate, involuntary action. "You know Chi and Hideki? The Motosuwa couple? That boy down there is their nephew. He'll be living with them for now on."

Kurogane frowned, confused. "Why? Won't he miss his mommy and daddy?"

"I don't know, sweetie. He might. I don't think he should, but that's not always how things work out." She didn't answer his first question.

"Aren't you gonna answer why?" Kurogane's frown deepened. It became almost fearsome (as fearsome as an eight-year-old could be) when he realized that his mother had no intention to.

They were quiet for a time, watching Mrs. Motosuwa take the boy's bags and the other man leading him towards the house. Then, once again so sudden that it made Kurogane jump, his mother said, "Please, Kurogane, be nice to him. Be his friend. I know you don't get along well with other kids, but I am begging you." Kurogane looked at her incredulously and her severe honesty struck his core. She was _so_ serious.

"Okay," he agreed, taking pride in the relieved smile she granted him.

* * *

_**Scene 2 – Assessment  
**_

It was still raining the first time they met.

It was three days after the boy had arrived. Mrs. Motosuwa had been invited over for tea and other lady dealings, her nephew along for the ride.

So while his mother entertained the blond woman, Kurogane sat upstairs in his bedroom with _him_, a puzzle spanning the floor between them. Even as Kurogane snapped the little pieces into place, he was already becoming annoyed. _He_ wasn't doing _anything_. Staring at his bandaged hands did not count as a playtime activity.

His mother had not lied when she mentioned how he did not play well with others. He tried, always, to keep her happy, but the other kids were boring and stupid and why, oh, why, did he have to spend time with fools like that?

Kurogane was a solitary child. He enjoyed being a solitary child. He did not want a brother or sister or a friend. He did not need them.

But he had promised his mother, so Kurogane resigned himself to placing puzzle pieces together in a quiet room with an idiot to the sound of rain pounding on the glass.

"You gonna help?" Kurogane finally bit out. His red eyes stared at the boy, stared at his hands, waiting for the other's eyes to lift and regard him with some semblance of acknowledgement. It would be an improvement.

After a brief pause, he got what he wanted. The new neighbor's eyes, blue like the sky on clear days, raised and watched him for several moments. Then they dropped again, back to his hands, and Kurogane was really starting to get mad.

"Answer me!" He tried to make the whisper as loud as he could, knowing his mother would not be happy if she heard him yelling. He promised...he promised...he promised.

"...I can't lift the pieces."

Kurogane got his third shock that week, jumping at the quiet voice. Process of elimination pegged the boy before him as the speaker.

"Why not?"

The boy looked up at him again, then pointedly down at his hands. This time Kurogane looked at them, too, and did not understand at first. The boy flexed his fingers, the bandages growing taught. The digits had barely moved.

When he understood, Kurogane almost felt ashamed. Almost. Because the only person to ever make him feel ashamed of himself had been his mother, and she was definitely the most influential of the two.

"...Do they hurt?" he finally asked.

The boy shook his head and Kurogane was fascinated by the bright-colored hair that swung with the motion. "Not really."

"How did you get hurt, anyways?"

The boy did not look up at him this time. "Do you really care?"

Kurogane felt something in his stomach clench and his heart seemed to be under an unexplainable pressure. The question weighed heavy with an importance Kurogane could not identify. He wanted to say no, he had no interest at all, but his curiosity told him yes, yes, yes. He found himself torn between two answers until something swayed his decision, an undetermined force pushing him to answer:

"Yes."

"Are you lying to me?"

"I don't lie."

The boy looked up again and Kurogane was relieved that he had his attention. When he talked to his hands, but to him at the same time, it unnerved him and he just did not like it.

"...My name is Fai." He held out a bandaged hand and Kurogane recognized the gesture. "Fai Fluorite."

As Kurogane slid his hand into the hold and grasped the hand lightly, he said, "I'm Youou, but everyone calls me Kurogane. So call me that, got it?"

They shook their hands once in firm agreement.

* * *

_**Scene 2.25 - Retrospect**_

It would take several years, but eventually Kurogane understood everything about Fai. He would come to know the terms for Fai's condition: neglected, abused, beaten. He would come to know that Fai's parents were responsible. He would come to know what his mother had meant that day many years ago, in the rain that lasted nearly a week, when Fai Fluorite moved next door and into the modest home of the Motosuwa family.

* * *

_**Scene 2.75 - Greed**_

Kurogane and Fai were nearly inseparable in their years of schooling, scaling through the system. Fai always seemed to be good at everything, tutoring Kurogane in subjects like mathematics and English. Kurogane would protect his friend—confidant, partner in crime, ally—from the occasional asshole that reared its ugly head.

_Fai has suffered enough_, he decided, _and I promised Mom, right? _Bullies aside, Kurogane was there and nothing would happen under his watch.

Whatever Fai's motivation for tutoring him, however, was still as mysterious as to whatever bout of abuse (_torture_) his parents had inflicted on him to damage his hands.

Kurogane and Fai knew that the thin tendrils of scarring on his fingers were still present, but they both ignored it. It was their own elephant in the living room.

(_But sometimes, when Fai thinks he's not paying attention, Kurogane sees him staring at his hands just like when they were kids. They're always trembling.)_

While the physical scars remained and were fairly unnoticed, Kurogane knew that Fai's mind was still wounded, tender, and he was so glad that although the process was slow, Fai was getting better. He smiled, he laughed, but Kurogane knew instantly when the bad days struck, when Fai became trapped in the darkness of his own imagination. When Fai's smiles were hard, his eyes icy, when the laughter didn't contain the subtle tinkle. He always watched him closely on those days, invited him over, did something dumb and embarrassing, anything to bring Fai back around. The tactic never failed.

But Fai was going to graduate at the end of the year. Needless to say, Kurogane had been surprised when he found out that Fai was a year older than him, but that surprise had morphed into some kind of pride. That pride had withheld itself through the years, but as the high school years dwindled, so did it.

Graduation would be good for Fai. He could go out and do things for himself. Enter the adult world, be an adult. No one messed with adults, and Fai was so nice and kind and friendly (_but only Kurogane got to see every part of him_) that he would do so well outside the realm of adolescence.

It didn't stop Kurogane from feeling the agony growing in his chest when Fai received the thick college acceptance letter in the mail. Despite how happy the letter made his friend, Kurogane knew where that school was and wondered why, just why, Fai would ever want to travel so far? Leave him behind?

And then the agony would grow because he realized he was being selfish and had no right to hold Fai back from the things that made him happy. No right at all. The fact that he couldn't stop feeling selfish solidified his ever-present heartache.

* * *

_**Scene 3 – Questionable Stability**_

The knock on his bedroom door drew Kurogane's attention away from the horrors of his algebra textbook. "What?"

The door opened and the familiar, smiling face of his best friend poked itself into the room. Kurogane noticed immediately that it was false.

"Hey, Kuro-bu-"

"What's wrong?"

Fai stopped smiling, remembered who he was talking to, and shuffled over to sit on the black sheets of Kurogane's unmade bed. While the design of the room had undergone several changes, Kurogane's sleeping habits had not. "Kuro-lu," Fai started, looking everywhere but at him. "I have a hypothetical for you."

Kurogane knew that meant: Kurogane, I have something I need to talk to you about, but I'm too scared or embarrassed to admit it.

"Lay it on me," he said instead, both of them realizing that Kurogane knew that the situation was more than hypothetical, but neither daring to break the charade.

"If...one of your friends was homosexual, what would you do?"

Kurogane was reminded of an incident several years back. The question was completely different, but the _weight_ of it was just as intense. This was so important to him, and it would either make or break a friendship held so dear.

At the same time he came to understand that, he also realized how _stupid_ Fai was.

"If one of my friends was homosexual, then one of my friends was homosexual. Makes no difference to me. At all."

"Oh."

Kurogane risked a glance at Fai's face. He looked like he didn't know what to make of the answer.

"Blondie," Kurogane said, fixing him with a look until Fai refocused on him. "Is one of your friends homosexual?"

Fai shook his head.

"So...are you my homosexual friend?"

The room was silent and both teenagers were motionless for quite some time. And then Fai nodded.

"It doesn't bother you?"

There was a baseball on Kurogane's work desk, a pristine one his father had bought him and got signed by some player he had never heard of, but it soon found new residence.

It was now located in the air, soaring straight at Fai's face.

"Kuro-chi!" Fai protested and flopped back onto the bed to avoid the ball intent on hurting his face. "That was mean!"

"Mean?" Kurogane snorted. "I think it's pretty mean that you think I'd be bothered by you. Am I really so petty? Oh, gross, I just used the word 'petty' in context."

Fai did not come up with any answer, staring at the wall passed Kurogane's head.

Kurogane turned back to his textbook, mind half on the numbers and formulas, the other half listening for his friend's next course of action.

"...Thanks, Kuro-tulu. It really means a lot. I...I've been kind of scared." Fai's voice was small and shaky, but Kurogane did not even have to look to realize that Fai's smiles were becoming honest. "You're the first person I've come out to. I trust you that much."

And with those five softly-spoken words, Kurogane came to a sudden conclusion, his brain supplying the word 'eureka' into the epiphany.

It didn't matter that Fai was graduating. It didn't matter that Fai would be half-way across the nation—had Fai even sent in his letter of intent to register? Because no matter where Fai was, Kurogane was the person Fai trusted most.

When Fai had troubles, Kurogane fully expected an e-mail or a text message. A phone call, maybe. If Fai didn't do it, then Kurogane would. He could not stop the gap between them physically, but he'd be damned if Fai was going to walk out of his life in a few short months.

And how could _he_ have so little trust in Fai to drop him like that? Kurogane and Fai were each others' life lines. They needed each other like air and food.

Fai had been so happy because he knew he wasn't going to lose anything.

Kurogane should have known. And suddenly he was the stupid one.

"So, Happy Homo," Kurogane called. "If you're done with your melodrama," _Oh, the irony!_ "then come here and help me with this shit."

And Fai laughed.

* * *

**A/N: This went somewhere different than I intended it to. The first scene to 2.25 was planned, and some of scene 3, but then it evolved into this. Hm. I hope I don't disappoint too bad.**

**Reviews for Memory number 4?**


	4. Cliche

**Cliche**

Syaoran liked to think he did not hate anything. Anyone. Ever.

Except maybe the spiraling black tower he could see cresting the skyline. He kind of hated that.

As the sun set behind it, the hated tower's edges seemed to be set aflame. Syaoran swallowed thickly as he urged Souhi into full gallop towards the structure.

He may have hated the tower, but the cause for his journey to it was only migraine-inducing.

_"Now, boy, don't you have any manners?"_

_Syaoran gazed incredulously at the hand mirror, at his lack of reflection, at the dark-haired woman staring balefully at him from its depths. "M-ma'am?"_

_"So vain, staring at your appearance in the mirror all the time. Really!"_

_"...Ma'am?"_

_"What ever happened to Mirror, Mirror, on the wall? No, I've been demoted and now I'm stuck with you."_

_"...Excuse me, ma'am?"_

_The woman looked affronted for a moment. "Well, it's about time you acknowledge me!"_

_Syaoran opened his mouth to say something, anything, but his intellect failed him and he shut his mouth. _

_It seemed the peculiar woman in the mirror approved. "Well, you've got me here. What do you want?"_

_"...Pardon?"_

_This time she looked surprised. "My, you don't know me? I thought everyone was trying to get a piece of me."_

_"...Ma'am, you've been buried in the ruins of Edonis for a long time. I just dug you up. I don't think anyone knows who you are."_

_If she was merely surprised or affronted before, this information floored her. Quite literally, as the woman seemed to collapse from Syaoran's view for a brief moment before she collected herself._

_"...So you found me, boy?"_

_"Yes. Uh, yes, ma'am."_

_"...And you don't know who I am?"_

_"No, ma'am."_

_The woman stared at him with her strange red eyes before she sighed. "It can't be helped," she said as her glossy lips turned up into a resigned smile. "My name is Yuuko, and I may grant you one wish. However, there will be compensation for my services."_

_Syaoran watched the woman in the mirror, contemplated turning it around and putting it back where he found it, then thought of the possibilities the mirror had. In that order._

_"I don't think I have any wishes, ma'am."_

_"Ridiculous! If you didn't have a wish, you wouldn't have found me!"_

_She seemed so sure that Syaoran found himself scrambling to come up with a wish on the spot._

_"Uh...uh...how about...a family?"_

_Syaoran was not sure where the request came from, not really, but it struck somewhere deep inside him. It struck the part that had been tenderized by Fujitaka's passing, by his parents' untimely demise, by his sudden status as a poorly vagabond. And as that part was struck, he watched the face of this mysterious person, Yuuko, in the recesses of the mirror._

_Her features had softened at the request. "A family...? That would cost quite a bit, you know."_

_Syaoran felt something bitter inside him whisper angry somethings, but he smiled at the woman instead. "I'm afraid I don't have much more than a sword and steed. So I guess I won't need you, ma'am. Sorry."_

_"...In the plains surrounding the perilous Bat Kingdom, there lies a tower. It's protected by two forces, and that is all. The first force is a fearsome dragon and the second is a _kekkai_ developed by a very powerful wizard."_

_"...Ma'am?"_

_"At the top of the tower is a young girl from the Kingdom of Clow. Rescue her and bring her home and you shall have your wish granted."_

_The image of the woman receded into nothing. Suddenly, Syaoran could see his own amber eyes staring back of him. _

_No matter how many times he called, Yuuko would not reappear._

_He wondered if there had ever really been a woman there at all._

A week had passed and he had not thought much on the woman's words, those words that promised so much. A girl trapped in a tower, guarded by magic and, God forbid, a dragon? Fairy tale stories sucked sometimes, he figured.

But he had looked around the nearby village of Outo and noticed just how many happy families there suddenly were...

Well, he had heard that the Bat Kingdom had some nice ruins.

The archaeological finds long behind him, Syaoran focused on the looming silhouette rapidly filling out with details. Its walls were made of a thick black stone that tapered into a point. A single window became visible as he neared, a faint light shining out of it, becoming more apparent as the sun continued its descent.

He pulled on Souhi's reins until the horse stopped, nearly threw himself off, just as he noticed something _else_ coming into detail about the tower.

Curling around the thinner walls of the tower's spire, black and quite simply _enormous_, was the aforementioned dragon. And, judging by the slow unwinding of its lengthy body and its scaly head turned in his direction, Syaoran was sure that it had noticed him as well.

Syaoran rested his hand on Hien's scabbard and waited.

The dragon jumped off the tower's spire with its powerful back legs, giant, wondrous wings opening at the peak of the leap. The blood red membrane kept the creature afloat for a moment or so, the only amount of time the dragon had allowed Syaoran to breathe and stare, before it angled its body down and snapped those wings close to its body. It zoomed down from the sky like a falcon.

Syaoran snapped the reins and Souhi took off. Animal instinct drove it far from the dragon's landing zone, slashing claws and gnashing teeth included. He slipped off Souhi's back with practiced ease, shooing the horse away as he drew Hien.

Closer than before, Syaoran could see himself being appraised by the beast, its foreboding red eyes all but glowing. As the sun made its final farewell and disappeared on the horizon, he was mostly sure that its eyes _were _glowing.

"Aaah...!" someone crowed and Syaoran nearly jumped out of his skin. There were footsteps behind him, but Syaoran dare not drag his attention from the dragon as it turned its body in order to face him. "Kuro-ryu, you found a new friend!"

Whoever was walking continued on passed him and Syaoran was nearly relieved when he kept walking. The stranger was fair skinned and haired, a man nearly spun from moonlight himself, and he had turned his head to watch the young boy with one eye as blue as the sapphires he had uncovered once as a child, the other covered in a silky black patch.

...and then Syaoran remembered that the blond man was still walking.

Right towards the dragon.

"S-sir!"

The man paused mid-step and stared at him. "Sir?"

"Uh...you...um...!"

The pouted slightly. "Do you speak? Mostly anyone that comes here can speak some kind of language."

Syaoran felt his grip on Hien loosening and amended it. "Of course I speak, but...the dragon!"

It seemed the man realized just what Syaoran was trying to say, even if the boy could not figure it out himself, and he suddenly beamed. "Oh, him? Don't worry about me. Kuro-lu won't hurt me. You, however, he might hurt. Badly."

The way he spoke of harm with an angel's smile upon his lips baffled Syaoran severely.

"As for me, you don't have to worry about me hurting you. It's not in the job description. But we can get into dealing with me if you can...ah..._slay_, such an ugly word...stop Kuro-pinku."

The dragon gave a snort that sounded almost offended, if Syaoran did say so himself.

The man moved to the side, calling out his wishes of luck, and Syaoran's heart sped up as he noticed the muscles in the dragon's legs tighten. With speed that rivaled Souhi racing for dinner, the dragon rushed forward.

Syaoran did not back down. As the overbearing jaws of the creature opened wide, Syaoran saw the opening he needed. Its head reared back as it prepared to crunch him into nonexistence, and he rushed under the dragon, taking refuge under its soft underbelly.

He gripped Hien's red hilt tight and prepared to gut the beast like a common animal.

Dragon slaying wasn't all that hard.

As he thrust the sword up, fully prepared for the bloody waterfall to cascade on him, he nearly fell over when he was met with no resistance. He looked up and saw the skin of the dragon's belly...

...far above the ground.

The dragon was watching him as it hovered. Its head reared back again. Syaoran expected it to dive again.

He would have been disappointed that it didn't if he was not too distracted by the unforgiving flames raining down from the creature's open mouth.

As he rolled away from the danger, he heard the obscure man with the light hair laughing. "It takes more than a few circus tricks to beat Kuro-ryu!"

The dragon touched down not too far away, but its fiery onslaught did not halt.

Syaoran was getting tired of this entirely-too-dangerous game of tag. His mind worked frantically as he dodged both fire balls and streams of flame alike. And then he had an idea.

He took off running, the tendons behind his knees straining with his long, quick strides, towards the observing man.

The man smiled as he approached. "This is new," he commented as Syaoran slowed to a stop beside him. He wrenched the man's arm and pulled him in front of himself as a shield. "But I'm not sure I like this tactic. I like it rough, but I'm not much interested in children."

Syaoran ignored the man's blather, when he recalled the words later he would be glad he did, and instead listened as the great dragon's assault stopped.

"Uh-oh, Kuro-chan, what are you gonna do?"

"I win! I've stopped him, right? That's what you instructed!" Syaoran proclaimed even as he cowered behind the man.

"Hm, I do suppose you're right. He got you, Kuro-piko."

The dragon made a disgruntled little roar-bark. It slid its head on its long neck behind the blond to watch Syaoran. He stared back in some kind of twisted shock, Hien trembling in his hand. Its eye was as big as his _head_...

It growled and its head retracted.

"And with this, do you surrender, Kuro-tan?"

Syaoran was bewildered by the never-ending list of names the man seemed to generate.

He was even more bewildered when the dragon nodded in the most human of ways.

"Then let your curse be broken. Congrats, you're free from Reed-sama."

"That makes one of us," came the deep-voiced reply.

The new voice forced Syaoran to peer from behind the blond man. His eyes frantically scanned the area for the giant reptile, but they only saw a broad-shouldered man in dark clothes with black hair and eyes as red as the...

As red as the dragon's.

"_What?_"

The blond man looked down at him and chuckled. "Allow me to reintroduce Kuro-ryu!"

The man's face morphed from generally indifferent to spitting mad. "My name is Kurogane! Call me by my name, you dolt of a wizard!"

"...Wizard?" Syaoran mumbled.

Yuuko had mentioned a wizard. Something about a _kekkai_?

The man stepped away from him and turned around fully. He pointed to himself excitedly. "Yes, that's me! I'm one of the wizards under the rule of the Bat Kingdom. My name is Fai. Nice to meet you!"

"Tch, yeah," the man named Kurogane spoke up. His voice was bitter. "You mean one of the wizards _enslaved_ by Fei Wang Reed."

"Not nice, Kuro-popo," Fai chastised.

"I don't have to be nice! The bastard cursed me as a dragon until someone could find a way to beat me!"

Fai waved his finger. "Actually, I do believe he said you'd be cursed until someone could stop your ever-present urge to fight. It seemed that Kuro-ray is quite the wild animal."

"Whatever! Kid, what are you doing here?" The questioned was posed to Syaoran, and for reasons unknown to him, the boy stood ramrod straight. He felt he was being interrogated by a drill instructor.

"I...I'm hear to bring the girl in this tower home."

Both men were silent. Kurogane did not seem to be too phased, but his lips kept twitching curiously. Fai seemed rather awed.

"Well, you're almost cleared for that," Fai said at long last. "You just need to figure out the way to break my _kekkai_. It's at the top of the tower, on her door. You can't miss it."

Syaoran sighed. "Can you tell me how to break the _kekkai_?"

"No, sorry."

"...do _you_ even know how to break your _kekkai_?"

"Of course, but if Kuro-chu's curse was to be a dragon, mine is to be sworn to secrecy. Now, don't stand here and ask me about it, go do it, Hero-kun!"

"Hero?"

"Shoo!"

Kurogane sauntered over to two thick doors at the base of the tower and pulled one open. "Door's over here. There's lots of stairs, you'd better start climbing."

Syaoran cast one last side glance at Fai before he advanced on the open door to Kurogane's side. As he walked into the darkness of the tower, he heard the bigger man growl, "Don't even bother coming down here unless she's with you. We've waited a long time for someone to get her out of this dump."

Before Syaoran could question him about what he had said, the door slammed shut.

Syaoran shuffled around in the dark, feeling more and more like an idiot, until his foot finally came in contact painfully (for he had stubbed his toe) with the first step of what promised to be an excruciatingly long staircase.

As soon as his weight was put onto the stair, something on the wall lit up. Syaoran inspected it with curiosity. A fungus was growing on the walls, glowing a soft sky-blue. "Foxfire fungus," he recalled aloud from a book he had read in the library of some bygone country. "Indigenous to this region."

Syaoran's ascent through the tower was as long as he expected, and just as boring, the only source of interest being that oddly colored fungi creeping on the walls. Each step up the tower allowed for more illumination. The fungi reminded him of richly-colored paintings.

He would have been more appreciative if his legs had not burned with the lactic acid built up inside them.

And when what felt like forever and a day had passed, Syaoran saw the black wooden door.

Chains coated with foxfire fungi stretched the expanse of the door from several points, but all of them were connected to a single lock embedded deep into the wood. In the stone lock there was no keyhole, but a strange blue stone.

Syaoran tugged at the slimy chains as a first resort, his finger slipping on the fungus, and only stopping when he could finally grip them tight enough to pull until his arms tingled with the effort. Giving up on that, Syaoran looked to the lock.

The stone embedded in it was dull in luster, but the vibrant color itself made up for it. He thought he had seen it somewhere before...

His fingertips scrabbled for purchase on the stone, but none would be had on its smooth surface. He did notice, however, that upon contact with the stone, the chains had shivered.

Syaoran resigned himself to removing the stone.

He took the tip of Hien's long blade and tried to wedge it between the lock and the stone. The chains continued their dance as he worked at the stone, but it simply did not move.

His hand slipped.

Hien's blade crashed down onto the stone and he watched it split perfectly down the middle. A liquid began to spill from the crack, red in hue, and Syaoran smelled copper.

The two halves of the stone tumbled from the lock. The foxfire dimmed all around him and the chains collapsed from their hold, hanging limply from the lock. The lock itself rattled before falling from the wood, revealing a single, brass-plated doorknob.

Syaoran turned the knob slowly and was beside himself with joy when the door opened without problem.

"Who's there?" someone called from inside the tiny room at the top of the tower. "Fai-san?"

"Uh, um...," Syaoran pushed the door open fully. Immediately his eyes found her. "...I'm here to take you home. To Clow, right? I mean, that's what Yuuko-san said. B-but you don't know Yuuko-san! I think." He was rambling with a tongue that felt too thick for his mouth, for the girl in the tower he had been charged with escorting was _beautiful_.

The girl in the tower stood by the solitary window, her form framed by the flickering candlelight. Her hair was light, but it was unlike Fai's strange blond hair, and more like the soft brown of the people of her country. Green eyes stared at him in uncertainty, but to Syaoran they were the most gorgeous eyes he had ever seen.

Those eyes brightened considerably. "Really? That means Fai-san and Kurogane-san are free to leave as well, right?"

"Uh..."

"You broke their curses?"

Syaoran fumbled with Hien until he decided that he was too nervous to hold it properly and sheathed the sword. "I...broke Kurogane...-san's. But...Fai-san...?"

"You must have! The only way to free Fai-san was to unlock the door! Oh, poor Fai-san!" She suddenly seemed very fearful. "Since we can leave, we need to go see if he's okay!"

"Wha-?"

The girl grasped Syaoran's hand and his face flushed red. She pulled him towards and door and nearly tripped on the stairs.

Syaoran's free hand grabbed her shoulder before she fell.

"Ah, thank you, Hero-san."

"You can call me Syaoran, miss."

She smiled. It must have been contagious, because he found himself smiling back.

"Syaoran-san...Syaoran-kun? Is that all right?"

"Yes, miss."

She pulled on his arm and the two descended down the stairs. Syaoran was relieved that climbing down seemed to be much faster than going up.

"My name's not 'miss'! If I can call you Syaoran, you can call me Sakura!"

"Ah, yes, Sakura-san."

"Still too formal!" She crowed, ending her proclamation with a giggle.

"...Sakura-chan?"

"Sounds good to me!"

The rest of the climb down was silent. When both of them finally reached the bottom, the foxfire extinguished itself.

"Ah, hold on, I'll find the door!" Syaoran told her in the darkness, hands pressed against smooth black stone and the squish of fungus. When his hands touched wood, he pushed with all the strength in his arms. The door creaked open.

As soon as the dim light of night had fallen into the tower, Sakura's hand was in his again and she was running from the tower. "Fai-san! Kurogane-san!"

"Oi!"

Both of them turned their heads to see Kurogane crouching at Souhi's side. Fai lay on the ground beside him, pale fingers gripped on Kurogane's pant leg. As they approached, the man lifted the wizard off the ground.

"Is Fai-san okay?" Sakura asked. Syaoran felt almost jealous at how much more attention they were receiving from such a pretty girl, and why would Fai be...

When they were close enough, he could see the red smears on the wizard's pale face. Blood droplets rolled down his face from beneath the eye patch.

"He's gonna be okay. We both knew it was gonna happen if the brat here figured out how to break the _kekkai_."

"Ah, to use his own eye as a locking mechanism..." Sakura murmured.

Fai turned his head, scaring Syaoran a little, for he thought the man unconscious, looking towards the girl. "Orders are orders. But we're all free now...right?"

Sakura's motherly concern was covered by sudden determination. Syaoran thought the look suited her fiery personality and found himself adoring it. "Right! And it's all thanks to Syaoran-kun!"

"Hero-kun? Aaah, good job."

Kurogane stared down at her. "You're gonna keep your promise, right? The one you made when Fei Wang first put you here? We can all stay in your country, Princess, since he destroyed ours?"

"...Princess..." Syaoran murmured and he felt himself grow cold. _Oooooh. _"You're a princess?"

The three looked over at him, Fai with minor difficulty, and Kurogane was the one to speak. "What, you think you'd find a commoner's child locked away in a tower? That privilege is for royalty only."

"Really, Hero-kun," Fai admonished from his cradled position. "You should read more fairy tales."

Sakura watched him, looking a little embarrassed. "Fairy tales are always full of cliche concepts. Um...like..."

Here Fai seemed to become a ball of energy as he squirmed in Kurogane's grip, ignoring the bigger man's protests. "Like a gallant knight in shining armor that lives happily ever after with his lovely princess!"

"Stop moving around, you'll make your eye worse, you idiot!"

"Ah, Kuro-pu is so strict, like a daddy!"

Syaoran looked himself over. Threadbare tunics and beaten leather shoes-that-could-hardly-be-called-so did not make a proper knight. He smiled ruefully.

Sakura approached him silently, steps as dainty and unobtrusive as the princess she was raised to be, placing a soft-skinned hand on his shoulder. Over the bickering background noise, she said, "You know, Syaoran-kun, with the lighting in the stairwell, you appeared to shine more radiantly than the most prized suits of armor I've ever seen." She smiled. "And you were so brave and daring to come here. You're really...I'm really grateful."

She turned abruptly, her gentle pretense gone. "Ah, Kurogane-san, Fai-san! Of course I'll keep my promise! You're all welcome to stay in the Clow Kingdom." She paused for a moment. "And Kurogane-san, if you are the daddy, then Fai-san is the mommy! We've spent so much time together that-"

"No!" Kurogane bellowed over Fai's sudden spasm of laughter.

"What about you, Syaoran-kun?"

Syaoran looked up at the princess in question.

"Do you have anywhere to go back to?"

Syaoran did not answer for what seemed like a long time. He had lost all he had ever had, giving into digging up relics for any price in order to just keep himself fed. But Sakura didn't need to know that. No one needed to know that.

"Yes, I do."

"Liar," was growled out in a voice tha most definitely did _not_ belong to Princess Sakura.

Syaoran was startled by the sudden accusation. He noticed that it had become quiet. Kurogane glared at him.

"You're lying. You embarrassed about being needy? Tell her the truth."

"...No, Sakura-hime, I don't have a place to go back to."

There was an awkward silence.

"...Kid. I'm going to take this horse and go to the nearest town. I'm going to get three more horses and some medicine and food, and then I'm coming back." Kurogane's attitude did not allow for protest or question. "And then we're all going to Clow and we're all going to settle there. Watch the wizard and the princess for me."

Before Syaoran could even think to say _no_, Kurogane had already settled Fai into a seated position on the ground and mounted Souhi. The horse looked surprised by the unfamiliar weight, but it seemed not a trifle. With an expert flick of the reins, the dragon-man and horse were already leaving.

"...He stole my horse."

Fai laughed from the dirt. "Kuro-ne said he'll be back, so he'll be back."

"...You called me Sakura-hime," Sakura murmured.

"Ooh, Hero-kun's gonna get in trouble!"

Syaoran blinked.

"Don't worry, Hero-kun. You'll come to know about Sakura-chan soon enough."

Kurogane did come back with everything he promised, and a little extra, and the haphazard team set forth to to the Kingdom of Clow. There were many adventures along the way, many greetings and partings, but Syaoran endured it all as he travelled with the gruff warrior from the fallen kingdom of Nihon, the one-eyed wizard from the conquered empire of Valeria-Celes, and the most beautiful princess he had ever seen from the desert lands of Clow. They almost felt like a family, really.

* * *

**A/N: A Tsubasa play on classic fairy tale cliches. =) I'm not very happy with my ending, but I liked a lot of this. Oh well, reviews so I can start brainstorming Memory 5?**


	5. Mannequin

**A/N: Heeey guys. This oneshot is very special and dedicated to someone super-special-awesome. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, GREENAPPLEICE-SAMA-DONO-TAN-CHAN.**

**Rated PG-15**

**Horror/Family**

**This will also be posted in two places: as a stand alone and in my 200 Tsubasa oneshot anthology as memory 5: **

**Mannequin**

**I. Fracture**

Kurogane stared. He hadn't meant to do that. The doll lay in two parts on the uneven floorboards. The entire attic was covered in a film of dust, but the jostled, broken figure jarred the particles into the air, creating an almost eerie aura around it. Its head had broken clear off, shedding dust off its gold-spun threads of hair and cracking the porcelain between its blue, gemstone eyes. They stared back at him, cold, lifeless, _accusing_.

"Shit," Kurogane growled. He scooped the parts up and settled them back onto the old side table it had been knocked from. After a moment's thought, he turned the little head to face away from him.

"Kurogane, did you find them?" Tomoyo's voice drifted up from the drawn ladder.

"Uh," Kurogane looked around, eying a little red jewelry box. He lifted the box's lid and saw the pearl earrings Tomoyo desired. "Yeah, I found 'em."

From Tomoyo's pleased squeal, Kurogane concluded that she owed him one and wondered when he should collect on it.

**II. Vermilion**

That night, Kurogane woke to giggling. His red eyes snapped open and he shot up in his bed. The digital clock's red digits told him the time ("3:01? That is bullshit!"), cloaking the rest of the room in a faint crimson shade. "A dream?"

He relaxed back into the sheets, letting his head thud against the pillow. With an aggravated sigh, he brought his heavy lids to a close.

There was silence, then, _"Where is he? Why is it so dark? I don't want to be in the dark anymore!"_ a rushed, panicked whisper reverberated in Kurogane's ears and sent a chill racing down his spine. He turned his head in the direction of the whisper, his senses sharp and his muscles tense.

To his credit, Kurogane didn't scream. He didn't react at all, in fact, so stunned by the fearsome sight.

To the right of his pillow, standing besides his bed, the child looked like a rejected Hollywood humanoid creature. Its hair, pale and long, tangled and matted, hung over its face like a demented sheet, only its white nose peeking through the curtain. Though Kurogane couldn't see its eyes, he felt them on his face.

_"Who are you? Why does it hurt?"_ The child gasped, shakily raising broken, bleeding hands to its hair, staining that mess red.

And then it was gone.

Kurogane did not find sleep that night.

**III. Splinters**

"What is going on? There's a reason I made you come up here instead of me yesterday, it's so dusty!" Tomoyo complained, stepping over a displaced box of _something_.

"Quit whining, your majesty," Kurogane sneered, eyes peeled for the tiny table and the tinier doll. It was a sleep-deprived hunch, but hours lying awake in thought - and oh, how his mind had been tossed as though in tempest - supplied him with a foolish, horrifying theory. It went against nature, it went against life, but then again, was this also the same for what had called to him in the night?

There! Kurogane saw the little doll, saw its body standing erect and its head by its feet, just as he had left it. Even the head was turned away, exactly the same.

"Why am I up here, Kurogane? I should be working on my designs. The deadline's creeping up, you know."

Kurogane ignored his sister, deciding never to tell her that because of his cracked theory, he was very much against venturing into the stale-aired attic alone. Gingerly, he picked up the pieces and touched the broken ends together. Maybe glue?

Tomoyo's hand on his shoulder startled him. "Hey, isn't that one of Grandma's dolls?"

Kurogane didn't know and told her such. He'd never seen the thing before in his life. "You know about it, then?"

She nodded. "A little. Mom said that Grandma brought the set home with her from her trip to the Valerian Ruins. Said the two were expensive and hard to find, modeled after real people."

"...that's _creepy_."

"You know what's creepier? They only made dolls out of people who died in the massacre. Maybe as a holy thing? Rememberance?"

Kurogane didn't know if she was joking, didn't really care, but it wasn't until he placed the broken doll next to his digital clock that he realized something. "They came as a set?"

A haunted whisper shook free to the surface of his memory. _"Where is he?"_

**IV. Rewind**

Kurogane stayed awake that night, back pressed to the headboard, waiting. The red digits illuminated the edges of the doll, casting it in a crimson glow. He waited, waited...

He was unconsciously drifting off to sleep when a chill and barely-there weight settled against his arm. Stiffly, he pivoted his head to the side, less surprised to see the mangy child there, sitting complacently on the mattress. One bloody, frozen hand rested against his own.

_"It's not dark anymore, just red. Thank you. But where is he?"_

"Who is he?" Kurogane asked, voice hushed and gravelly. He kept a close watch on the child's hand, the touch slick. Every instinct hammered him into withdrawing, running from the covers like a scared little bitch, yet he remained in the bed beyond rhyme and reason.

The question seemed to fall on deaf ears for a long moment. Then the child raised its wrecked hands back up to that entanglement of hair, curled those fingers into fists, and pressed them to the approximate location of its eye sockets. _"Why does it have to hurt? What did we do to deserve this? Where's my brother? Where's Fai?"_

And then, it disappeared. With the dreaded, gut-sinking feeling of déjà vu, Kurogane stared at his hand. Not a spattering of blood blemished his skin.

**V. Affection**

"Deadlines, Kurogane, deadlines!"

"Just look for the other doll, Tomoyo!" Kurogane raged as he dug through the various contents of a re-used hat box - one of many, many hat boxes that he could never hope to explain away.

Tomoyo slammed shut the drawer of the dresser she had been rifling through, throwing a collection of mothballs to the floor. "Are you okay? Seriously? You're so grumpy! Have you been getting enough sleep lately?"

"No, no I haven't," Kurogane spat, slamming the lid onto the box and reaching for another. Where was the other doll?

"Take a nap!" Tomoyo cried, surprised, perhaps in response to his unexpected admission.

Kurogane made some strange, bestial noise in his throat. "No! I need to find that doll first!" There was as much reason for shouting as there was to even suspect the dolls. "It's important and I won't sleep until its found!"

"Youou Kurogane!"

The name gave him sudden pause, his addled mind taking a moment to register his rarely used given name - no one called him that, ever, and that was when he realized Tomoyo meant business. Her eyes were hard on him, lips sealed into a tight line. She looked as cold in spirit as the ragged child did in aesthetics.

"Kurogane," she hissed, tone heavy with that one overpowering thing that displayed the hierarchy between legal guardian and charge, between older and younger siblings, but never between two friends as they often associated themselves. "You say this doll is important, well, here's a reality check for you. We're all we've got now, and you are what's important to me."

"Tomoyo?"

She pointed a lilac-painted fingernail at the open entrance. "Go take a nap. Sleep. Feel better. Don't worry, I'll keep looking."

Kurogane, humbled, asked, "What about your designs?"

Tomoyo's grim expression faded to something softer, motherly, and it was weird because the resemblance to their own was stunning. "Go to sleep, Kurogane."

And he did.

**VI. Hook, Line, Sinker**

When he woke up again, the sun was just sinking over the horizon, filtering his room through a fiery pallet. Kurogane went to check the time and saw two dolls, one dusty and the other broken, resting like old tin soldiers, dutifully, by his clock, glowing with the artificial light.

He reached out for the whole doll, nearly jumped out of his skin when tiny fingers, cold like ice, clutched his wrist. Kurogane's eyes traveled high and was met with not one, but two, identical, ragged, hair-hidden children.

"Shit," he cursed. "This is crazy."

_"You found him,"_ crooned one, farther back than its twin. _"You found him, you found him!" _The whispers were quick, but held an elation Kurogane had never before heard. Suddenly, their skin looked less gray, warmer, and they were less frightening. A sudden humming in his veins alerted him to a feeling he'd only ever felt towards Tomoyo, a feeling so agonizingly fraternal.

These twins, these toys, what the hell? What were they? Cursed Valerian dolls, here to reap his head?

His wrist was released. _"Yuui,"_ his former captive soothed. _"Why do you hurt?"_

_"Fai, it's because of what Mama and Papa did."_

_"We didn't survive, Yuui."_

_"No, we were left alone in the dark."_

_"But Yuui, he found us. Your doll broke, but he brought us out of the dark."_

The child that had grabbed him, Fai, raised its tiny hands and separated the curtain of its brother's hair. Kurogane almost screamed again, so unused to anything so horrible. Fai had exposed the empty, bleeding socket of Yuui's left eye, a congealed mass of agony, a hole to oblivion.

Eyeless, Yuui reached out to do the same to Fai. Kurogane swallowed back his vomit, chest lurching forward on the heave. Where Yuui had a gouged out eye, Fai's bottom jaw was absent, raining blood, tongue, and saliva onto his carpet.

_"The hook hurt your mouth, Fai."_

_"The hook hurt your eye, Yuui."_

As one, the twins turned to regard Kurogane, their poor victim unable to tear his eyes from the macabre, blond, blue-eyed twins. _"Kuro-sama broke the seal,"_ Yuui said on the ghost of a breath. _"We're free now."_

_"It doesn't hurt anymore."_

They waved their bloody hands and smiled (however Fai did it, it was a spectacular feat), and Kurogane watched as the red substance began to dissolve away, watched muscle and tendons sew themselves together as time raced to restore the twins. It was then that Kurogane felt an overwhelming sleepiness. He was asleep before he knew it.

**VII. New**

His alarm rang out shrilly and, in Kurogane's most-definitely-biased opinion, unjustly. He was just so tired...

He reached out for the alarm and felt something soft instead. Kurogane looked up and saw his fingers on golden thread, signifying the hair of two perfectly in tact Valerian funeral dolls.

* * *

**Even in other worlds, Kurogane's there to lead Fai/Yuui out of the dark, huh? Review, review, por favor.**


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